Q&A with Philip Holloway 05.11.17

Philip Holloway answers your questions from our Voicemail line. Have a question? Call us at 770-545-6411.

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the uh the the chase you want to show love a question about where those two is currently i guess i got the impression that after the arrest he was incarcerated and are unable to communicate with people but he's been texting or listening on message boards since the arrest of just wondering if he's actually incarcerated or out on bond as part of his plea deal where he is now I thought that's a good question Bo Duke is out on bail it was pre arranged by his attorney he literally turned himself into the authorities in Ben Hill County Georgia and was booked and processed fingerprinted photographed and released on just about fifteen thousand dollars bail within a matter of just a few hours so he really didn't spend any time in jail so to speak he was arrested in the sense that he was taken into custody to be fingerprinted and photographed and processed but he was immediately released on bail and in all likelihood unless he violates some condition of bail or commits a new fence he will remain free and if he's communicating home the message boards or anywhere else about the case there is a possibility that he could be in violation of the gag order in if someone perhaps the judge or anybody else decides they want to take any action the judge has contempt powers and if he feels that he is in contempt of her order she could order him back to jail but barring any of those things happening he is out on bail he is free and he will remain free at least until the cases are over and the disposition of the criminal charges against both defendants can be completed guys is David from Colorado State saying that I'm an eye she was murder Ryan Duke by his self took her to the pecan orchard and dumped her body and then somehow contacted Bo Duke's for help in disposing of the body or are they saying that he contacted both groups prior to moving her to the pecan orchard thinks of the podcast keep up the great work another good question the first scenario set out by the color is the scenario that really is painted by the warrants and the indictment in this case the narrative if you will that we can piece together from what we've learned before the gag order and based on the charges is that according to the indictments and the narrative the state has laid out if you will try and do acted alone as far as committing the murder and did not really bring bowed to into it until sometime after matter of days when apparently allegedly he was asked to help cover up the crime by helping to dispose of in what we believe to be now burning the body over a period of days in the pecan orchard so it's not that they're saying that Bo had some prior knowledge of this or participated in it but they're saying he was essentially an accessory after the fact since Georgia has no criminal liability necessary for being an accessory after the fact they're relying on separate charges such as concealing the death and tampering with evidence and things that nature with regard those charges have seen some pucks in and had a question from Helen Holloway with me and I being of the and even arrest warrants being a pain in the the team to help the family of her situation her story pry my family have to be respectful of their privacy as it nears about hair I can be kind out there that every possible thing for doing such a great job and have a case while I've said from the beginning that the arrest warrants were not drawn very well all they didn't even track the language of the relevant statutes at play the district attorney did a better job in cleaning that up when the indictment was drawn it does at least allege the essential elements of the offense but as I've said before the details about exactly how Ryan was allegedly using his hand to commit a murder is very vague and it doesn't really put anybody on notice of what they need to defend against as a matter of constitutional due process indictments need to put the defendant on notice of exactly what they're being charged with any time you have the allegation that an object which is not always a deadly weapon such as your hand if the allegation is that you use your hand in a deadly manner than some specificity in my opinion needs to be contained in the indictment why that detail was left out I would not even begin to speculate about the district attorney's reasoning for that recently I saw case in another county where a judge threw out an aggravated assault and I know that because it was vague and basically for that reason they didn't set out enough information to put the defendant on notice as to what exactly they were being accused of an aggravated assault so the vagueness of the indictment does open itself up potentially to a legal challenge as to the way that is worded if on the other hand there is some discussion about a possible plea deal or something in the works yes it is not beyond the realm of possibility that the details could be held close to the vest so that the family of either the victim of the defendant or perhaps both are not necessarily dragged through the been it could be that they are respecting the privacy of the victim's family and that's definitely something that could happen it's worth noting that in the event that any plea deals that may be in the works or discussions that are in the works right down the district attorney can always go back to the grain jury and seek a second indictment if he feels that he needs to put more detail into the indie minute to make it a little bit more specific it's not at all uncommon for district attorneys to send the case back to a grand jury if there's a problem in the language of the first indictment the weather stays this weekend it's not too late to get him on the perfect gift from all the delicious gift to share his berries huge freshly dipped strawberries starting at only ninety nine plus shipping these things are delicious to make the perfect gift for Mother's Day was the more berries share with family you can double the 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that open for him or his attorney to lean more towards manslaughter with a home in the burglary or invasion and he awakens her or he walked in on him and he uses this to blow that could potentially kill her but that may have not been his intention so is he may be going that way for saying I didn't intend to kill her as you strangle somebody your attention a pretty clear what that open up for him if that's where his stay from appreciating again keep of the work ok so the defense of manslaughter would require some type of sudden provocation that would call somebody to do something irresistible the classic example is when a spouse comes home and finds another spouse in the act of having sexual relations with a third party they just really can't control themselves there's a sort of sudden heat of passion that causes them to do something that they really wouldn't otherwise normally do that's not the scenario that we are presented with here at least the way that has been alleged the fact that you have these two charges of felony murder speak to I think the caller's question a little bit better because if it was not an intentional act in other words if it was a punch or something to happen suddenly that really was not the defenders intention when he entered the house then the felony murder still gives them the life sentence that they may be seeking because felony murder malice murder carried the same penalty which is a life sentence in state of Georgia so if a jury can't believe that it was something that was done maliciously or intentionally they can fall back and hang their hat on the felony murder counts a nap crying Francis and my question was what involvement the Harris family have in whether or not the death penalty is sought me than any say in that horizontally and to the prosecutor and the A R He never lets the family has a lot of input into what decisions the prosecutor makes in this case they don't get the final say but the Georgia Crime victims' Bill of Rights requires the district attorney to keep them in the loop they have to be consulted if there's going to be a plea deal they will have to be part of that discussion the district attorney will most certainly take their wishes and their desires into account the end of the day the decision is for the eighth of May but as a practical matter in cases like this the DA will usually defer to the wishes at least in large part of the victim's family and under the Crime victim's Bill of Rights they literally have to include them in the process of the decision making for example if they decide we're going to cut you a deal Mr. Duke and we're going to take the death penalty off the table where even get to possibly take life without parole off the table if you'll enter a plea of guilty to murder and accept a life sentence with the possibility of parole is not beyond the realm of possibility that the charges could even be reduced even further but again that would all be something that the DA would decide after full consultation with the family from Jacksonville Florida and I have a question regarding to reveal a brief conversation with the on the most recent podcast in the one he told her mother about those are the all the tears body and her mother Natalie told the police about it when it be safe to assume that will be a witness called to trial and if she is one of her discussing the case in violating the gag order I believe no one said only the previous forecasts of the gag order or search and listen but it seems like this would definitely be breaking any restrictions are in place just curious to get your insight on this much I yes it does seem very likely that broken her mother may very well be witnesses if there's any trial in the case these discussions however that were had and any information that may have been revealed earlier in the process could have predated any gag order and the gag order as amended is limited to the parties to the case the two defendants their lawyers their legal team law enforcement officers of the past and present who in the case witnesses themselves are not really determined until there's a witness list prepared by the DA so I would suspect that they're going to be witnesses but anything that they may be discussing like this does not appear to be a violation of the current gag order bearing in mind that the defendants themselves bowed to and Ryan do they are covered by the gag order in if they say anything in violation of the gag order they could be held accountable and potentially subject to contempt of court the the shopping for clothes can be annoying going to the mall some boutique shop searching for the perfect size and color it's been way too much money on something you might only wear one time with photos of the day on all the latest trends in name brands and you never have to leave your house so it's also the style and fitting expert using actual data to perfect a fit better than any other retailer even if you're expecting also offer stylish maternity clothes that you are ever changing size for nine months as many totes as you want simply where returned repeat with the tote get a richer look keep it as long as you want then just exchange for something when you're ready my wife usable tote she loves it she had to say about her latest photo box in mind the three foot box I got a shirt that was great because I opened it at night not knowing I was in a way to work next day and I just put that on board to contract it's definitely one of my favorite things to look to dock on the L E T O T E Dakar get started for as low as thirty nine dollars a month right now you can use the promo code Q A at checkout to get fifty percent off your first month once you sign up to receive your completely customized tote within days again the photo Dakar promo code QA the guys listen this is Kristen are our North Carolina ever question about Ryan's plea by making the statement that he is not guilty is it possible that he's really saying with this council look I did do this and then his counselor saying they were going to plead not guilty that way we have to have a trial that way we can bring Bo and that where we can bring in other people if we need to confuse the evidence to cloudy and all were out in the hopes that Ryan gets a lesser sentence good work guys thanks the entry of the not guilty plea is really what was expected to happen it really just preserve the defendants' rights including his right to a trial until his lawyer was able to go through and digest all of the evidence in the case it would be malpractice really not to do that we don't know what may or may not be going on in terms of discussions between his counsel and himself and we really should know those things but the entry of the not guilty plea does not necessarily mean be a trial in almost all cases there's an entry of not guilty and wants a plea deal can be the not guilty plea can easily be changed to a plea of guilty down the road but not until the defense counsel has an opportunity to examine whether or not there any or factual defenses so this is really routine quite frankly and it's the way that any competent lawyer would handle the case it would be extremely unusual to rush into a case like this and simply plead guilty at arraignment it just doesn't happen so hard on and I'm not surprised one bit that happened the way the did one thing to keep in mind is it's not the lawyers decision about whether or not to plead guilty or not guilty it's always done by the defendant after consultation with the attorney but it's not the attorney's decision the lawyer can't force someone to plead not guilty if they really want to plead guilty and they can't force them to plea guilty if they really want to plead not guilty so that decision is for the defendant and the defendant alone to make and modify cat I was calling to ask if we know anything about Ryan is returning especially since he guilty recently I was just curious in his attorney in court appoint or in a private attorney and if we know anything about his resigning over legal representation you will Ryan's lawyer is John Mobley and he's with the test and Circuit Public defender's Office in his court appointed he is a graduate of the University of Mississippi Law School he graduated in November of nineteen ninety five so he's actually been practicing law about a year am he has been an active member of the State Bar of Georgia for quite some time he's very experienced and by all accounts knows what he's doing so in terms of the legal counsel that's been appointed to the defendant I would say the defendant is in good hands and by all accounts and from what I've seen so far he's doing exactly what one would expect a competent criminal defense lawyer to be doing in protecting his client's rights and making sure the due process runs its course and really we would want to have it any other way you would not want to have a situation where there was a really spectacular trial and it was a one sided match where the defendant really did not have a good lawyer if any bit of a conviction you want to have some degree of confidence that the trial was a truly adversarial contest between competent counsel and that each side was well represented so that you can have faith and confidence that whatever verdict is reached by jury or whatever conclusion is reached in the event of a negotiated agreement that it was done so and that both sides were well represented so that we can believe in hope that there's justice in the case whatever that looks like I have had us wondering if you could elaborate a little bit more human when you're sad or when county demographics are unique in Georgia and my talent me feigning injury and other county high thank you very much whether my Will Irwin County is certainly unique in terms of demographics it's a rural county very rural county in fact as of the last census the population was somewhere around ten thousand people in the whole county it's an agricultural community primarily it's not situated on any interstate highways for example it's accessible by other well traveled roads it's not like Clifton which is very nearby it's situated right along Interstate seventy five where it intersects with U S Highway eighty two Tipton is a much larger city in the county of tt if tt is much larger and it's just next door so Irwin County is very small everyone knows everyone and in the event of a change of venue the law requires the court to find a county that has at least somewhat similar demographics and the fact that Irwin County is unique would make it somewhat difficult to find another county that is substantially similar in terms of demographics not necessarily impossible there's a lot of rural counties in Georgia not only in the South but in the north part of the state in the central part of the state that likewise are not connected to major such is an interstate highway so it would not be impossible but it would be a challenge to go through those potential counties and decide which one is the best fit and in the event of a change of venue the only thing different about the trial he would be one the location obviously it would be in the courthouse of whatever county that Rob would be moved to and the jury would come from the county where the trial takes place so rather an Irwin County jury he would have a jury from the new county that was selected after change the venue now the judge cannot change a venue unless the defendant asks for it because he has a constitutional right and the state constitution in Georgia to be tried in the county where the crimes allegedly committed high pain until i dono how to torture our work that if county saw fall in that era K in a voice saying thank you for doing a great job or have questions actually about the case but I'm curious who reached out who's still if you reach out to paint painted hers out the filler when he goes great on them thank you thank you Donna for listening and thank you for asking that question it's really kind a interesting I'm in from Tipton myself the South Georgia area just like you also I think it was Twitter not mistake and that is the vehicle that pain in our first connected through I followed the case because I was disinterested in it and I use to live there used to work there I was a police officer in Mosul along time ago much before this happened and so it's always been something that that I've been interested in and I've kept up with and I became a podcast an up and vanish and listener and I was listening and paying very close attention and out of nowhere of course the news breaks of the arrests and it occurs to me that the podcast might could benefit from my experience is a I've worked for National and local media Alice bows and television and have some experience in providing legal analysis own complicated questions that sometimes the lay person may not be able to understand through traditional reporters and journalists so I felt that maybe add something to offer to pain and to assist in some way and it's my understanding that pain it also heard something about was maybe trying to reach out and so I believe if I'm not mistaken I follow him on Twitter and he noticed the follow and followed me back in we were able to begin our initial dialogue through direct messages on Twitter so there you have the backstory thank you for asking the question thanks for listening everybody be sure to tune in Monday for case evidence will be glad that you did today's episode was mixed and mastered by resonate recordings specialize in podcast editing and mixing want to improve the quality of your podcast a podcast of your own email resume recordings dot CA